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Quenelles De Poisson

Fish quenelles are smooth fish and bread mixture shaped into dumplings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Quenelles De Poisson

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Rub the fish through a sieve to create a smooth texture.

  2. Prepare the bread panada as directed in another recipe.

Make the mixture

  1. Mix the butter and fish into the bread panada.

  2. Season with pepper, salt, and a pinch of nutmeg or mace.

  3. Pound the mixture in a mortar until smooth.

  4. Incorporate the eggs one at a time, mixing well.

  5. Moisten the mixture with a little fish broth.

  6. Pound until it forms a smooth paste.

Poach and serve

  1. Poach the quenelles in fish stock as directed in another recipe.

  2. Serve large quenelles as an entrée with lobster or shrimp sauce, or as a garnish.

Check the texture

  1. Test a piece in boiling broth.

  2. If too soft, add an egg.

  3. If too firm, add more fish stock and panada.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Bread + fishtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Fine fish
Provides the main body and delicate flavor of the quenelles.
Bread panada
Adds moisture and lightness, keeping the mixture tender rather than dense.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set when heated, giving the quenelles firmness.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, smoother texture.

The step that matters

Test a piece in boiling broth. Eggs set when heated, so too many make quenelles rubbery, while too little or too much panada leaves them loose or firm. A test poach shows the texture before the whole batch is cooked.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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